1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiator core support structure of a vehicle body, which is mounted to a front portion of the vehicle body to support a radiator and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, various types of radiator core support structures for motor vehicles have been proposed and put into practical use. Usually, the radiator core support structures have a basic structure which comprises radiator core support upper and lower members (which will be referred to as xe2x80x9cupper and lower elongate membersxe2x80x9d for ease of description) which extend laterally with respect to a vehicle body and a hood lock stay member which extends vertically between intermediate portions of the upper and lower elongate members. These three members of the basic structure are made of metal and welded to one another to constitute a constructional base of the radiator core support structure. However, welding the hood lock stay member to both the upper and lower elongate members tends to induce deformation or distortion of the product (viz., radiator core support structure) due to the high heat used for the welding. As is easily known, if the radiator core support structure produced fails to have a satisfied dimensional stability, mounting the support structure to a vehicle body needs a difficult or at least time-consumed mounting work.
In order to solve the above-mentioned drawback, several measures have been proposed, some of which are shown in Laid open Japanese Patent Applications (Tokkai Hei) 5-105115 and 10-264855. That is, in these measures, substantially all elements of the radiator core support structure are made of integrally molded plastic. In the latter publication, a metallic reinforcing member is added which lies on the uppermost portion of the radiator core support structure.
However, due to the nature of the plastics, the radiator core support structure proposed by such publications fails to have a satisfied rigidity or mechanical strength. As is known, the radiator core support structure has an upper portion to which a hood lock device for an engine hood is mounted. Thus, when the radiator core support structure fails to have a satisfied rigidity, it can not bear a marked shock which is produced when the engine hood is strongly pivoted down to assume a closed position. This drawback becomes more severe when an associated motor vehicle is subjected to a vehicle collision, particularly, head-on collision. That is, upon such collision, a locked engagement between the hood lock device and the hood is easily broken due to the insufficient mechanical strength of the radiator core support structure.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a radiator core support structure which is free of the above-mentioned drawbacks.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiator core support structure which comprises an upper elongate member made of metal; a lower elongate member made of metal; and mutually spaced pillar portions of integrally molded plastic, each pillar portion having an upper end connected to the upper elongate member and a lower end connected to the lower elongate member, the connection between each of the pillar portions and each of the upper and lower elongate members being integrally carried out by injection molding.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a radiator core support structure which comprises an upper elongate member made of metal; a hood lock mounting member made of metal, the hood lock mounting member being welded to an intermediate portion of the upper elongate member; a lower elongate member made of metal; two side members made of metal, the side members being welded to laterally opposed ends of the lower elongate member; a hood lock stay portion made of an integrally molded plastic, the hood lock stay portion having an upper end connected to the hood lock mounting member and a lower end connected to an intermediate portion of the lower elongate member; two pillar portions made of the integrally molded plastic, each pillar portion extending between laterally outside portions of the upper and lower elongate members; an upper reinforcing structure made of the integrally molded plastic, the upper reinforcing structure extending in a channel defined in the upper elongate member and integrally connected with the upper end of the hood lock stay portion as well as the upper ends of the two pillar portions; and a lower reinforcing structure made of the integrally molded plastic, the lower reinforcing structure extending in a channel defined in the lower elongate member and integrally connected with the lower end of the hood lock stay portion as well as the lower ends of the two pillar portions.